Description

This climb starts 15 to the left and up from Mission Control. Follow the obvious hand crack up across a series of big ledges to the base of the orange block at the top of the pinnacle. Climb the orange face to the top, passing two bolts. The major portion of this climb is very easy trad, probably no harder than 5.4 which is too bad; were there less ledges and more verticality, this could be a really great crack. But this climb is all about the orange block, which offers some real fun and somewhat exposed movement over moderate ground. Skyline Pinnacle does not lend itself well to top-roping; better to lead and follow. There is no bolted anchor. To descend, scramble down to the east (away from the climb) and then follow the 3rd/4th class gully back to the trail/base of the rock.

TR'd. Fun route. Definitely need a 70M rope if the belayer belays on the 1st ledge. 60M will do if the belayer belays on the upper ledge just below the beginning of the route. Love the move to the orange face climb where there's 2 bolts. Build an anchor up top for TR'ng. When using TR, run the rope to the last bolt w/ a quick draw for back up.

Anchor Beta: Set the anchor about 20 feet back after topping out. There's a small flake/horn you can sling, as well as a crack to the left of it that will take medium and medium-small cam.

I would not advise using the bird's beak looking rock to set an anchor. While it *seems* totally solid, if it happened to come loose it would have devastating consequences to the ubiquitous groups below.

One of my favorites at MG, due to it's length and the cool belay perch. Down low the climbing is super easy with great stances, and takes plenty of gear. The moves onto the orange face feel exposed and harder than 5.7, but protect well.

Requires some creativity to build a solid anchor. I usually wedge myself amongst the upper blocks and sling one of the big boulders with the rope, then belay off my harness.

It's extremely easy to build an anchor for TR on this. You can sling the very top of orange face with a large cordelette(we used a 30ft?). The rope had zero drag. You can even place gear in the rear to keep the cord in place like I did if it concerns you, but I didn't feel it was necessary. I would say that it is probably better to lead it first to setup TR than to hike up the side/back.

Really, really enjoyed this route! The first 60 feet was very benign (perhaps 5.5) and easy to protect. The last 20 feet on the orange block was a blast. There are a few moves on it that I think are a bit stiffer than 5.7; perhaps 5.8. Lots of exposure makes for a great top-out experience!

There's currently a C4 wedged hopelessly on top of the pinnacle. I used this to tend a sling around the boulder and added one additional piece to set the top rope.